Monster Slice (Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip M & M Cookie Bars)

Last weekend our family braved our first family camping trip. We went with our friends the Snaders (who are experienced campers)! It was a success, though I am not so great at sleeping on the ground.

I made some bar cookies for the trip and when I pulled them out for an afternoon snack at the campground, Melinda said, "Oh that reminds me of our Australian friend Rachel.  She always bakes for every occasion, including camping."  Evidently you always want Rachel at an event because she brings delicious baked goodies. I asked Melinda what all she makes and she said mostly Slices.  I asked what a slice was.  She said "Slice" is what they call "bars" in Australia.  Not plural, "Slices"- singular, "Slice".  She said she makes different types of Slice: Lemon Slice, Chocolate Slice, Raspberry Macadamia Nut, etc. So fun.

I looked up the definition when we got home and had access to Google again to see what constitutes a Slice.  (One of the refreshing parts of being in the woods was not having phone service!)

Here's what it said: Slice: (Australia, New Zealand) A class of heavy cakes or desserts made in a tray and cut out into squarish slices.

Why do words seem so much cooler when they have an international influence?

Cheers instead of Hello,
Holiday instead of Vacation,
"throw that in the bin" rather than the trash
stand in the queue rather than the line

I think I'm going to have to adopt the name "Slice" for bars.

I've been wanting to post this bar cookie recipe for some time, but needed to get some photos before I could post it.  I got it from Kathryn who kindly made these last year for her Sunday School class in honor of Lucy's birthday.  Lucy was so honored that Kathryn, her teacher, made a birthday goody and I was so happy that she shared one with me!

I asked for the recipe and held onto it, wanting to make it.  The hang up was that I never seemed to have M & M's when I wanted to try the recipe.  There is a reason for this.  I can't keep them in my house.  People snack on them and then they are gone...or at least not enough to make the recipe.  So, this summer, I bought M & M's and declared them "off limits" for sneaking.

Little did I know the recipe makes a huge amount- an entire jellyroll baking sheet!  I shared them with neighbors and we had them for several days until I froze the rest.  Since then, I have halved the recipe since, to make a more manageable size. Another bonus to this smaller batch is that you only need 1/2 cup of M & M's.  So that means in my house, there's a better chance of being able to have enough to make it.

This recipe is Gluten Free if you use Gluten-Free Oats (not all are..so watch it, if you need/want GF).
They are hearty and healthy-ish, in that they have peanut butter and oats and no flour.  But I'm not deceived...they also have butter, sugar, chocolate chips and M & M's! But most of all they are yummy, easy to make, and they travel well.

Monster Slice 
(Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip M & M Cookie Bars)

16-20 bars

5 ½ Tbsp. butter, room temperature

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp.pure maple syrup

1 cup peanut butter (crunchy or creamy- I use natural peanut butter)

3 cups old fashioned oats

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup M&M's candies, for topping (I like Mini M&M's)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together the butter and sugars. Add the eggs, vanilla, syrup, and baking soda. Stir in the peanut butter. Add the oats and stir again until well combined. Mix in the chocolate chips.

Press the dough into the bottom of a 8 1/2 X 11  or 9 x 13 baking dish- depending on what you have- the bigger just will make bars a little thinner. Top with the M&M's and lightly press them into the dough. Bake for 16-17 minutes, until the bars are lightly browned and just past looking wet on top. They will not be firm, but they will set up as they cool.

 

Monster Cookie Bars -BIG BATCH RECIPE

Makes 32-40 bars

2/3 cup butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups light brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

4 eggs

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 Tbsp. real maple syrup

2 cups  peanut butter (crunchy or creamy- I used natural creamy)

6 cups old fashioned oats

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup M&M's candies, for topping (I like using the mini ones)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together the butter and sugars. Add the eggs, vanilla, syrup, and baking soda. Stir in the peanut butter. Add the oats and stir again until well combined. Mix in the chocolate chips.

Press the dough into the bottom of a large baking sheet, or jelly roll pan. Top with the M&M's and lightly press them into the dough. Bake for 16-17 minutes, until the bars are lightly browned and just past looking wet on top. They will not be firm, but they will set up as they cool.

If you were hoping for something more seasonal, instead of Monster Slice,

maybe you should click back in my archives and find a pumpkin recipe... click HERE for my favorite Pumpkin Cake 

or HERE for Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

 or HERE for consistently delicious Pumpkin Muffins

or HERE for How-To-Roast your Pumpkin Seeds

Or if you would rather read about our Halloween Traditions and recipes, you can click HERE.

Cheers!

Brownie Bottom Coconut Bars & Honoring MLK

For about 8 years my family has sought to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King on his birthday weekend.
We talk about the life and work of Dr. King, and we think about what we can do in our lives to carry on the work for equality and dignity for all people that he and his colleagues did. I posted HERE about this tradition. As my kids are getting older, I want to think of some even more significant things we can do for this holiday.

I always make a treat that somehow incorporates chocolate and vanilla to represent racial integration and togetherness.  I have made cookies and cakes of various sorts.  Like this one.

I was trying to decide what to make for this year- a new recipe, one we've done in the past, a variation on a standard.  But when I was looking for another recipe in a stack of my old Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazines I found this recipe for Brownie-Bottom Coconut Bars.  I have had the recipe in my torn out magazine pages for years but have never made them.  I knew they would have to be good since they are brownie on the bottom and coconut macaroon on the top!  I decided MLK weekend would be a good time to make them, with their black and white togetherness.  They are simple to make and they are really, really good!

They are pretty and feel special.  All of my coconut-loving people gobbled them up.

Brownie-Bottom Coconut Bars 
from martha stewart's Every Day Food magazine

Chocolate Brownie Base:
1 stick butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp coarse salt
1 large egg
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup all purpose flour

Coconut Topping:
2 large eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 package (7 oz.) sweetened shredded coconut (1/2 cup reserved for sprinkling)

For the brownie:
Preheat oven to 375˚
Line a 9 inch square baking pan with aluminum foil, leaving a slight overhang; butter bottom and sides of foil (not overhang)
Place butter in a large microwave-safe bowl; melt in microwave.
Add sugar and salt; whisk to combine.
Whisk in egg, then cocoa and flour until smooth.
Spread batter into prepared pan.

Bake just until sides begin to pull away from edges of pan, 10 to 15 minutes (do not over bake). Let cool slightly while preparing coconut topping.  Keep oven on for topping.

For the coconut topping:
In a medium bowl, whisk eggs with sugar and vanilla.  Gently mix in flour and coconut (except 1/2 cup reserved for sprinkling).
Drop mounds of mixture over chocolate base; spread and pat in gently and evenly with moistened fingers.  Sprinkle with reserved 1/2 cup coconut.

Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs attached, 25 to 30 minutes.  Cool completely in pan.  Lift cake from pan,  peel off foil, and cut into 24 bars.

It makes 24 small bars- but they are rich- so being small is good.

In our city Regal Cinemas and Metro Public Schools teamed up to offer free admission to students to see SELMA in the theaters.  We went on Saturday and it was very impactful.  If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend that you do.

It was hard  to watch.  It was emotional  and painful  and honest  and hard.  Lainey and I held hands most of the time and cried a lot during the film.  It was really important though.

It is a very well done film and a raw look at the difficulty of a tumultuous and unjust time in our country and the bravery of some amazing people. I think we need to know and remember and in doing so deepen our compassion for the not-so-long-ago events that continue to have ripple effects today.

Thanking God for the courage, clarity and spiritual strength of Dr. King and his comrades this weekend and praying that we might be people of conviction and action like them.

A Go-To Peanut Butter Chocolate Blondie Recipe & Gearing Up for Summer

Next week is the last week of school for my kids and I am trying to gear up for summer.  I have to admit that at this point in the calendar, after an intensely packed school year for me and my kids, I just want to sit on the porch, read books and drink lemonade for the next 2 months.

However, the reality is that my gang needs me to be a cruise director rather than a checked-out mom.   I start to have flash backs to Julie McCoy from The Love Boat.  (Or was this before your time?)

Thinking through and trying to create a strategy for managing (and maximizing) long summer days has become an annual ritual of mine. As I looked back at my post this week last year, I saw that I wrote about this AND the Chewy M & M bars that I had just discovered.  I can't tell you how many times I have made them in the past year, since that post! They were on heavy rotation in my kitchen.

Recently, I have added another bar cookie to my Go-To list. A few weeks ago, I was looking to make an easy but delicious dessert for small group in honor of Caroline's love of peanut butter and chocolate.  I found this one online, and it far exceeded my hopes.  It is gooey, just the right amount of peanut buttery and chocolatey, and is a bar which I love - as it is so easy!  It's made with things I had on hand, and is a cinch to whip up.

On days when I need to make a treat for a party, or a picnic, or a get together this summer, these Peanut Butter Chocolate Blondies are a good bet.

(I found the recipe on a blog and it made a small batch- which I wasn't expecting because her pan was rectangular and it threw me off- since I am used to a small batch being in a 9 X 9 pan.  I quickly doubled the recipe and made the large batch (9 X13 pan) for the crowd I was serving.  I have included ingredient measurements below for both sizes, as you might need the big for a crowd or might want a small batch if you are just making them for yourself- as they are hard to stop eating!)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Blondies

borrowed from The Sweet Talker (who borrowed from Two Tiny Kitchens)

(for a 9 X 13 pan)

1 cup peanut butter butter (I used natural- it made them nice and gooey; and you can use

 creamy or crunchy- your preference!)

2/3 cup butter, softened

1 1/3 cup white sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

2 cups chocolate chips

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(or for an 8 X 8 pan …so you don’t have to do the division J)

1/2 cup peanut butter (I used natural- it made them nice and gooey; and you can use creamy

 or crunchy- your preference!)

1/3 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup white sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Preheat oven to 350˚. Grease baking pan.

In a medium bowl, cream together peanut butter and softened butter. 

Gradually blend in the brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, and vanilla; mix until fluffy. 

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the peanut butter mixture until well blended.  

Fold in chocolate chips.

Bake for 30 minutes in preheated oven, or until the top springs back when touched. Don’t over bake!

Cool, and cut into squares.

Of course, feel free to add in other treats- like coconut, or Reese’s pieces, or M & Ms, or nuts into the batter.

So, in addition to making these bars and eating them, I'm working on a summer strategy for reading, projects, filling our days with productive, seasonal, relaxing and connecting things.  I am asking my friends with kids for good ideas to help with this. I used a punch card system last year that worked pretty well for my people.  My sister is working on this list of "optional activities" for summer that I am trying to figure out how to best mobilize into action.

I'm looking for a "summer central" type of spot in my house to post our plans/ideas/etc. Maybe the laundry room…or clear off the refrigerator and do it there?

We are also making a Summer Bucket List of things we want to do this summer including:
making lots of variety of popsicles and ice cream (more posts to come on those),
taking hikes to different trails/parks in the area,
pick fruit from local farms, just to get started.

I have all of these pipe dreams of learning to embroidery, learning how to play Rook as a family, working lots of jigsaw puzzles, doing house projects, and the list goes on.

And I have created my annual summer book stack- ones I need and/or want to read this summer.  I don't know how much of a dent I will make on this, but I am sure gonna try.

(I welcome any of your suggestions for managing the chaos of summer with kiddos!)

Regardless of how we end up ordering our days this summer, one thing is for sure: things will be busy in the  kitchen - with lots of hungry eaters and more time to get creative and try new things! 

S'Mores Treats

Every day has highs and lows.  We usually process these at the dinner table each evening.  And at times the highs are the top stories of the night and other times the lows are more dominant themes, but both seem to always co-exist.  This week was that – a mixed bag– some good moments, some terrible ones.  And that’s okay. 

I want to move through the rough patches and learn what there is to learn from them, but then embrace the joys!  There is a quote in a piece we read for my Spirituality in Social Work class that says, “Don’t obsess about the past, or worry about the future, all you need is right here now.”   I think of this quote often.  It has become somewhat of a mantra for me.  

This week, my friend Emily, who continually inspires me, put this Emerson quote on her blog and it stirred me up.  My heart quickened as I read and it made me crave this! I don’t live like this on most days, but I earnestly desire to. 

“Write it on your heart

that every day is the best day in the year.

He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day

who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.

Finish every day and be done with it.

You have done what you could.

Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.

Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;

begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit

to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

This new day is too dear,

with its hopes and invitations,

to waste a moment on the yesterdays.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Collected Poems and Translations

This weekend, full of activities, ranged from chaos to sweet, and fun to maddening- with weather that matched-  rainy, cold days and a gorgeous sunny day on Saturday.  One of the highlights was these S'Mores Treats that I made – twice, actually.  I made them, along with Banana Pudding and Stop Light Chili for the social work chili supper on Friday night, which is always a fun time.   And then we were going to a neighbor’s house for a Super Bowl gathering and I thought I would take the leftover S'Mores Treats, when I realized there were only a couple left in the container.  Dave confessed to being the culprit and graciously offered to go pick up the ingredients to make another batch.  Which I did.  

They are ridiculously easy... I'm talking 6 minutes. Asher was going to help me make them.  I asked him to wash his hands.  He left the room to wash his hands, must have gotten distracted, came back about 5 minutes later and said, "Where are the ingredients?" And I said, "They are done! I already made them."

They are that fast. Melt, stir, pour, stir, add, stir, dump, press, sprinkle, done!

These bars are like Rice Krispie Treat S'Mores.  My family adores them, which I think is mostly because they love Golden Grahams cereal- which we don’t buy very often.

S'Mores Treats
adapted from Country Clever

6 Tbsp. butter
1 bag (10 oz.) mini marshmallows
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1/4 cup for topping
1 box (12 oz.) Golden Graham Cereal
1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract
non-stick cooking spray

You can make this in a pan on the stove top or in a glass bowl in the microwave- it's up to you! Melt butter in pan (or bowl) add marshmallows, stir and continue to heat until melted. (Keep your eye on it, as it can quickly get overdone). Add vanilla. Stir.  Add Golden Grahams and 1 cup chocolate chips.  Stir until well combined and marshmallow goo is fully incorporated into the cereal.  Coat 13 X 9 inch pan lightly with cooking spray.  Dump cereal mixture into the pan and press well.   Place in the refrigerator for 10 minutes or until firm enough to slice.  Slice into bars and serve. 

In the midst of this winter week (cold, dreary, and rainy here in Nashville) will you join me in fighting for joy- joining Emerson's hopeful outlook- that "this new day is too dear,

with its hopes and invitations,

to waste a moment on the yesterdays"?!

My Someday List & Oatmeal Raspberry Bars

I am an avid list maker. I come by it honestly – we're a list-making family. It’s what we do – (though they vary in methodology and rigor).  I always have multiple lists going. Sometimes, when my mom and I need to feel productive, we put things on our lists that we are already doing just so we can have the satisfaction of marking things off the list.  I have lists of:

things to do at work, 

things to do at home, 

long range "to do" lists, 

house project "to do" lists, 

foods to make, 

foods that I’ve made and photographed to blog at some point, 

bucket lists, etc. 

A new list I’ve started is a “some day" list. 

This list contains things that someday I want to do.  They are inspired by people doing them for me and they mean so much that I want to do them for someone someday, or they are things I see others doing that I want to also do when the time is right. Many of these things are related to my children when they are grown, things to write about, places to go, hobbies to try.

Here are a few things on my “Some day List” :

My friend, Blair’s mom, Ruth, has sent amazing baked goods to me via Blair as a THANK YOU for loving her daughter in Nashville, being a home away from home for her, as she lives a few hours from home. She sent these INCREDIBLE oatmeal raspberry bars which I love, and a lovely plump loaf of her homemade whole wheat bread. She included a lovely note of gratitude.   Little does she know that WE are the blessed ones!  Blair's wonderful presence and friendship to our family is a gift.  

(I thought to myself, “do this someday”! When my kids are out of my nest. I want to show gratitude via notes and food to those who love and take them into their families and homes). 

another thing on my "do that someday" list is:

When Dave and I bought our first house, I was so excited to have a home and super excited to have a porch on which to rock.  Evidently, I had expressed this dream of porch-rocking to my coworkers at Oasis Center, because the week we moved into our house, we arrived home to our new house, to find a rocker on the front porch with a large bow on top with a card attached.  They put their money together and bought and delivered a rocker to the porch of my new house.  A dream come true- a house with a porch and a rocker to rock in.  It was an overwhelming and unforgettable moment many years ago, where I felt so supported and celebrated by my co-workers about something happening in my personal life (buying our first home).  It meant the world to me!  

My friend, Hannah, told me many moons ago about something her mother-in-law did when Hannah went to visit. Her mother-in-law would have fresh flowers and a magazine on the bedside table in the guest room where they would stay awaiting her when she arrived.  She said these lovely touches made it feel like such a vacation to visit their home and she felt so honored and welcomed.  I want to do that someday!

I hope someday if Asher marries, I can bless his wife with lovely touches like that.  I expect the way I will love Lainey and Lucy’s someday-husbands will be cooking their favorite foods, like my mom has so wonderfully done for my husband. 

These are a few of the items on my "to do some day"list.  

In the meantime, I am making these oatmeal raspberry bars when I need an easy to make, tasty treat! 

There are many versions of this recipe with little differences.  I think one (Ruth's) is a winner. It has so few ingredients! The ingredients are lots and lots of butter, brown sugar, oats, self-rising flour and raspberry jam.  

This recipe is simple and yummy!

Oatmeal Raspberry Bars

2 sticks butter (softened)

1 cup self-rising flour

1 cup brown sugar

2 ½ cups oatmeal (old-fashioned oats)

10 oz. raspberry jam (seedless is best)

Mix first 4 ingredients with hands until crumbly.

Spray a 9 X 13 pan with cooking spray.  Line pan and up sides with foil or parchment. Spray the liner.

Pat half of the mixture into the pan.  

Spread jam over the first layer and top with the remaining oatmeal mixture. 

Bake at 375˚for 30 minutes or until golden and bubbly.  Cool and cut.

You can add toasted coconut, or change the kind of jam.  You can make them in a smaller pan if you want them thicker. You really can't go wrong, I don't think.

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Thank you, Ruth, for inspiring me and sharing your daughter with us! I hope my kids will bless families they meet when they leave the nest, like Blair does.   And I hope I will be as thoughtful to those people as you have been to me.